“Sure, okay,” I agreed, nodding. Ashton smiled and we followed Tim, weaving through the sea of people to the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs there was a table that we had to pass to get to the next level. It was full of a group of laughing men, all of them wearing white ‘adult’ wristbands. My stomach tightened as one of them turned towards me and raised one eyebrow as we approached. A predatory smile crept onto his face. “Hey, sweetheart, I can show you a better time than that guy,” he purred, nodding at Ashton distastefully.

I scoffed and shook my head. “I doubt that very much, sweetheart,” I answered sarcastically, trying to appear confident even though my insides squirmed.

His smile grew bigger. “Well, you never know if you don’t try,” he flirted as he leant forward and landed a slap on my behind.

My nervousness suddenly gave way to anger and my hands clenched into fists, but before I had a chance to respond, Ashton whirled around, looking so angry that he actually looked like a different person as he pushed me in front of him, away from the guys. “Hands off my girl if you wanna keep them!” he growled.

The guy flinched. “Whoa, chill dude, I was just having a laugh with her,” he said, nervously.

Ashton’s shoulders were tense. “Oh really? I didn’t realise. I tell you what, touch her again and then we’ll see how f**king funny you find it,” he suggested, smiling but at the same time looking at him menacingly. The guy held up his hands in protest, shaking his head quickly as his eyes widened at the threat. He actually looked frightened, even though he and his friends outnumbered Ashton five to one.

I gulped, looking back at the stairs that were only a few feet away. I didn’t want him to get in trouble. “Let’s go,” I urged, pulling his hand. His jaw tightened as he nodded, putting his hands on my hips possessively as he gave me a little push towards the stairs to get me walking.

“You okay, Baby Girl?” he whispered in my ear.

I nodded. Spotting Tim already at his table, we wove through the crowd to get to him. Rich and Serena were already sitting there, along with Monica. I suppressed my groan as her predatory eyes landed on Ashton again. I had hoped that my jealousy would have evaporated, but she seemed to make it rear its ugly head again immediately.

Behind Monica there were three other people. Two new boys and one new girl. Tim waved a hand at each of them in turn. “This is Sam, Andrew and Rosie. Guys, this is Anna and Ashton.”

“Hey, nice to meet you,” I greeted as they all scooted over to let us sit down. Ashton nodded for me to sit in the booth first. I bit the inside of my cheek and looked at him pleadingly; I didn’t want to sit next to the new guy I’d only just met. Ashton smiled, obviously understanding my silent plea because he sat down and pulled me onto his lap.

The new girl, Rosie, smiled warmly and leant over to talk to me. “So, you’re new to the college? How come you’re starting mid-semester?”

I smiled in return. She looked extremely nice. She was actually exceptionally pretty; she had long reddish-brown hair and brown eyes that were warm and welcoming.

“Um, well, I didn’t like my old college, so we transferred here,” I lied, shrugging.

Rosie looked at Ashton, raising one eyebrow curiously. “You came all the way here because your girlfriend didn’t like her college?” she asked. Ashton smiled and nodded, which made Rosie make a cooing noise as she put her hand over her heart. “That’s so sweet! Do you have a brother?”

“Nope sorry, only child,” Ashton replied, laughing and tightening his arms around my waist.

Rosie sighed dramatically, looking disappointed. “That’s a shame.”

The three new people were really nice too; I liked the whole group of people if you discounted Monica’s doe eyes that she directed at Ashton. Due to us all having blue wristbands, we were all on soft drinks tonight, but it was fun, I enjoyed it.

When the band finished their set, a DJ came on which seemed to get the crowd even more fired up. Serena looked at her watch. “Shall we dance, girls?”

I looked at Ashton questionably. I actually did want to dance, but I wasn’t sure if that would be okay. Did that mean that he had to dance too, or could he wait here with the other boys?

“You can dance if you want,” he confirmed, nodding. I smiled and stood up, downing the last of my drink as he pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text. I rolled my eyes, seeing Peter appear out of nowhere and walk about five steps behind me as we made our way to the dance floor downstairs.

“So, how long have you two been together?” Rosie inquired as we danced.

Okay, time to remember all the lies we made up. “Just over a year.”

“Where did you meet?” she asked, seeming genuinely interested.

“We met at a basketball game,” I lied, shrugging.

She sighed, stepping closer to me. “He is so damn hot, Anna! Are you in love with him?” she asked, looking at me hopefully. She struck me as a bit of a romantic, the type of person that would cry at soppy movies and enjoyed a good love story.

My hands were getting sweaty, and my insides starting to tie in knots at the questioning. “Yeah,” I lied, nodding.

Serena chimed in then. “I’d love him too if he were mine. He’s so damn sweet!” Suddenly her eyes narrowed with interest. “He must have a flaw though; no one can be that perfect.” She pursed her lips, waiting for my answer.

Flaws. Did Ashton actually have any flaws? I hadn’t seen a single one, apart from… “He snores.” I didn’t class that as a bad thing though, after all, if he didn’t snore I’d probably still be screaming myself awake, haunted by dreams of Carter’s leering face.